Antique-Style Maps in Gimp a tutorial by Candacis of Cartographer's Guild based on Ascension's tutorial "Antique-Style Maps in Photoshop" This is a tutorial especially for the graphics program Gimp. The same Photoshop Tutorial was written by Ascension. I want to thank him for his fantastic guide, additional thanks goes to RobA for his pioneer work with map-making in Gimp. Without those two this tutorial wouldn't have been possible. I tried to mimic all the functions from Photoshop, but of course Gimp has its limit and sometimes I had to take a long way around to create the same outcome. It is not the same end result as in the Photoshop tutorial, but hopefully close enough. Please excuse some grammatical and orthographical errors. English is not my native language. Don't hesitate to point those shortcomings out, so that I can correct them. Any other questions and comments are welcome, too. Hint: "Using Gimp to create an artistic regional map" by RobA is a useful guide to every Gimp Cartography User and it has some extra tips. Difficulty: This tutorial is for beginners, with steps in detail. However, basic knowledge, like creating a new layer, tools and layer modes, is expected. Check Beginning with Gimp [Extern Link] for a starter tutorial and how to work with Gimp. Don't follow the settings and numbers in my tutorial too closely. If you think a different setting suits your map better, go for it. I work with Gimp 2.6. 1. Create a new Gimp document (.xcf file). I will use a 700x700px size with RGB color, transparent background and a 72ppi resolution (due to my weak netbook). For a map you want to print, I recommend a larger size (2.000x2.000) and 300ppi. You may have to adjust some techniques, if you have chosen a large size. One comment before I start: If I say I create a new layer, this layer is my active layer (just click in the layer box on the new layer and it is active) until I create a new one or say so otherwise. Oh, and save often. 2. Check the first four steps of RobA's tutorial "Using Gimp to create an artistic regional map", if you have a sketch of your map you want to use. I will use his Three-Layer-Sandwich (TLS) technique for a random map. - First create a new transparent layer, fill it with the grey color #808080. - Create a new transparent layer on top of that, name it "Noise", go to Filters/Render/Clouds/Solid Noise . Set the detail to 15. I used x and y size 4,0, but try different options depending on the size of your picture. Press the "new Seed" Button until you are satisfied with the result. Set the layer mode to "Overlay". - Create a new white layer on top of that, set its layer mode to "Lighten Only" and name the layer "Land 1". Open the "Levels" box ( Colors/Levels ), take the white arrowhead on the right side of the output (not input) slider and drag it slowly to the left until enough land is revealed. I stopped the slider at 120, but that's just my setting and it might be different for you. If you have a nice difference between landmass and water, click OK. Choose the Fuzzy Select Tool, check the box "Sample merged" and set the threshold to 0 and the mode to "Add to the current selection". Click with the tool anywhere in the darker area. Invert the selection ( Select/Invert ). - Create a new black layer, call it "Land Mask". With "Land Mask" as active layer, fill the selection with white color. If you are at this point and at the opinion the black mass is more suitable for land than water, go to Colors/Invert and white and black should switch places. But remember: white is your land and black your water. Go to Select/None. Hint: If you are unhappy with the look of your landmass, go back to the step with the noise layer and try a different noise effect. Or try to use a map draft instead of the grey layer. Working with a white rough grunge brush to connect some little landmasses is possible, too. Check RobA's tutorial for more advice. 3. "Land Mask" is your active layer. Go to Filters/Map/Displace . The Displacement Mode is "Cartesian", the Edge Behavior is "Smear". Chose the noise layer as map and set 20 X and -20 Y. Click Ok. Do another Displace Map, but this time with -20 X and 20 Y. This gives the coastlines some nicer edges. Duplicate the "Land Mask", make the duplicate invisible. This is just a precaution in case you want to go back to this step. 4. "Land Mask" is your active layer. Use the Select by Color Tool and click with it anywhere in the black area. Go to Edit/Clear or just hit the delete key on your keypad. Deselect ( Select/None ). - Create a new transparent layer beneath the "Land Mask". Name the new layer "Ocean". Fill it with #808080. Choose "Land Mask" again as your active layer. Right click the layer and choose Alpha to Selection. This should select only your landmass. - Create a new transparent layer on top of the "Land Mask". Name it "Coastlines". You have now two different options for creating a better coastline. Either go to Edit/Stroke Selection and use a black stroke line width 1px or go to Select/Border, choose 1 or 2 pixel and fill the new border selection with black color. Either way you should have a black coastline in your new layer. Deselect. Now you can toggle the opacity until the black coastline is a fine line. I used the first method and 27% opacity. 5. "Land Mask" is the active layer, use a Alpha Selection. Create a new transparency layer named "Rivers" beneath the Coastlines, this is your new active layer. With the landmasses selected, you will paint the rivers only on the land. Choose #808080 (or black) as foreground color and a circle (01) as pencil. The paintbrush works fine, too. Draw some rivers, starting at the ocean and going inland. Try doing some of the majors rivers and then adding branches. You can apply a Gaussian Blur ( Filters/Blur/Gaussian Blur ) of 1px if you want to smoothen the rivers a bit. Hint: RobA has created a script for rivers in Gimp, named "Tapered Rivers in Gimp". 6. Create a new transparent layer and name it "Mountains 1". I will use different mountains than the one in the Photoshop tutorial, but they can be done quite easily, too. First the Ascension Mountains: - Choose black as foreground color and a big round brush. I used a Circle (09). Draw some basic lines where the mountains are supposed to be. It don't has to be pretty, just don't draw to close to the coastlines. - Create a new transparent layer and name it "Mountains". Use a smaller brush, check the fade out box and set it to 20px (or what length your lines should have) zoom in and draw some hair lines around the mountains. It should look like a paramecium. Now hide the Mountain 1 layer. Deselect. - Alternate Mountains: I used a different approach. Choose the color #808080 as foreground color and a grunge brush. I downloaded some free grunge brushes from www.deviantart.com , where you can download all sorts of useful stuff for Gimp, because Photoshop brushes work in Gimp, too. I used the second brush of these . Copy the brush file in Gimp/share/gimp/2.0/brushes . You may have to refresh the brushes in order to use the new brush. Draw rough shapes in the places where you want your mountains. Open Filters/Distorts/Emboss. Play with the three controls until you have nice mountains. Deselect. 7. Create a new white layer named "White" beneath the "Ocean" layer. Choose the "Ocean" layer as your active layer. Set the foreground color to #BEDCE6 and the background color to #F5D7D7. Use the Blend Tool to fill the Ocean layer with a gradient, where blue is in the lower half of the picture and pink in the upper half. Set the opacity to 50%. - Create a new white layer beneath the "Land Mask", name it "Noise 2". Apply a RGB Noise Filter (Filters/Noise/RGB Noise) with Red, Green and Blue at 0,20 and the independent RGB Box checked. Set the layer mode to Multiply and the opacity to 60%. But a Grain Extract at 15% or a Darken only at 70% could result to some nice effects, too. - Create a new layer, naming it "Aging" with #84745E as color on top of the highest layer, set the opacity to 15%. Go to Filters/Artistic/Apply Canvas and use a Detail of 4 and select a top-right direction. Another fine effect is to set the layer mode to Soft Light and the opacity to 80%. 8. Now for the rings around the land: Create a new transparent layer beneath the "Noise 2" layer, name it "Rings". Activate the "Land Mask" layer and use an Alpha Selection on it. Go to Select/Grow . Expand the selection about 2 (or 1) pixel. Activate the "Rings" layer. Go to Select/Border , choose a 1px border. Fill it with black. Deselect. Repeat these steps, expanding the selection about 5 and 8 pixels and so on. More or less. It depends on the size of your image.